Despite rising high school graduation rates, the percentage of students tracked into remedial courses in college is high, according to a new report produced by Civic Enterprises and Johns Hopkins University.
The “Building a Grad Nation Report” acknowledges steady growth in high school graduation rates across the nation, yet finds that students are also underprepared to meet the challenges of higher education.
More than 50 percent of all students entering a two-year college need some remedial courses, and more than 50 percent of black and Hispanic students entering a four-year college need at least one remedial course, researchers found.
The percentages are higher for black students entering two- and four-year institutions, with 78 percent of black students in a remedial course at a two-year college and almost 66 percent of black students in a remedial course at a four-year college.
The study results also show that for two-year colleges over 75 percent of students from the lowest quartile income need remedial education, compared to 48 percent in the highest-quartile income. For four-year colleges, 51 percent of students from the lowest quartile income and 18 percent of students in the highest-quartile income need remedial education.
These statistics point to the persistent presence of racial and socio-economic achievement gaps in the K-12 system and display their ripple effects into higher education.
Most notably, remediation in higher education comes at a great cost to taxpayers and families.
A study produced by Columbia University in 2011 found that the annual cost of remedial coursework to colleges is $7 billion annually. The cost to families for their students to catch up is nearly $1.5 billion annually and on average an extra $3,000 per student, according to an Education Reform Now report published in 2016.
Remedial education now joins the laundry list of hidden costs and fees associated with higher education – despite a higher percentage of students graduating from high school, it is dubious whether or not students are prepared for post-secondary education, a fact that might leave them feeling even more cheated by the system.
